Outdoor Briefs

Posted: Friday, March 28, 2003

By Staff and wire reports

Fish and Game schedules bear baiting clinics

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game will be holding black bear baiting clinics on the Kenai Peninsula. Hunters who have already attended a clinic and have been certified do not need to be certified again. Clinics are approximately three hours long.

The dates, times and locations are: April 4 at 6 p.m. in the Cook Inlet Aquaculture building at 40610 Kalifornsky Beach Road in Kenai; and May 2 at 6 p.m. at the Kenai Sport, Recreation and Trade Show at the Soldotna Sports Center. For information on clinics in Homer, contact the Homer Fish and Game office at 235-8191.

Hunters may not register a bait station in Game Management Units 7, 14A, 14B, 15, 16A or 20B unless they have successfully completed a Fish and Game approved bear baiting clinic.

For more information, call Fish and Game in Soldotna at 262-9368.

Bear Festival kicks off in Homer

The fifth Alaska Bear Festival will starts today in Homer, with a variety of activities focusing on bear viewing in Southcentral Alaska.

Saturday's forum features invited speakers who will discuss the latest in bear management in Southcentral Alaska as well as bear viewing practices. The forum will begin at 10 a.m. and runs until 5 p.m.

There also will be a kids' program at the Pratt Museum Saturday from 1-2 p.m. There is no charge for the forum or the kids' program.

The film festival portion of the bear festival begins tonight at 7 p.m. and continues Saturday at 7 p.m. Admission to the film festival for adults will be $6 for either night or $10 for both nights. Tickets for kids under 12 will be $3 a night. Tickets can be purchased at the door.

For more information, contact organizer George Matz at (907) 345-3139 or by e-mail at geomatz@gci.net. The festival program is posted on the Internet at www.anchorageaudubon.org.

Police identify four victims of two B.C. avalanches

FERNIE, British Columbia Police on Thursday identified four people killed the day before in two separate avalanches in southeastern British Columbia. Three snowmobilers died in a slide near Fernie while a French tourist, part of a heli-skiing group, was killed in another avalanche near Valemount.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police identified the snowmobilers as Thomas Brown, 25, and Daren Jones, 25, both of Fernie, and Daren Drake, 43, of nearby Crowsnest Pass. The men were snowmobiling in the Fairy Creek Meadows area, a popular backcountry locale, when the slide occurred.

The dead skier was identified as Jean-Luc Megevand, 45, of Seynod, France. He was among a group of 10 skiers from Europe when he and several others were swept away in the slide on Mount Terry Fox.

All were wearing avalanche locator beacons and were found quickly but Megevand was buried for almost 30 minutes.

Including Wednesday's fatalities, 23 people have died in avalanches in British Columbia this season.